September Menu Plan

Menu planning has been a key to saving money for me. It’s much easier to grocery shop (going one or even two times per week saves money), schedule my day, get work done at home and most importantly, if I know what we are having, it eliminates (for the most part) the last minute going thru the drive-thru. We still have the occasional super busy day and end up going out, but since I have been menu planning, we have cut back on eating out considerably. Now that Summer is ending (sniff,sniff) and Fall is on the way, I will start planning more hearty meals, but still keep some of the favorites from the Summer menu plan.

I like planning my meals for the month. I find it easier to sit down one time with a calendar and figure out the whole month. It takes a little longer, but after you have several months done, you can just repeat.

Recently, Toni over at The Happy Housewife has been sharing her Meal Planning 101 series. The first assignment was to come up with 15 meals, the second was to add 5 meals and then sides. It was fun to visit the other bloggers and get some ideas. Once you have your list of your families favorite meals, it’s easy to just plug them into the calendar. I usually have a crockpot meal or a quick and easy meal on game nights. And I also plan one night for Mexican and one night for Italian.

What a fabulous menu! We love some of the same things, but hubby likes to have some input in the menu and one week is about as far out as he plans. Most of the time I only get input from him the first few days of the menu!

I will be bookmarking a few of those recipes, some we already make but have forgotten about.

I followed your link from Organizing Junkie, I’m still in the ‘observing how this thing works stage’ with Menu Planning…. But my goodness, the stuff you guys eat is the stuff WE eat!! Ok… I have to do this… I just have to sit down & menu plan…. School starts on next Tuesday & I don’t want to be bonky for the year… (worse than normal that is)…. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can……

Well, besides me coming over for dinner tonight… lol.
Your menu looks great and I like the fact its very diversified. I always get stuck with the same ole’ meals. And am definitely trying to search out new ones. Thanks for some ideas.

Liz – You amaze me with the month long planning! Not sure I am up for that, but you never know! I appreciate the inspiration. Thanks so much for joining in the chivetalkin menu plan blog roll. I love having you!